On the first day of Black History Month, Cory Booker announces he’s running for president

NEWARK, NJ – It’s official. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) is running for President of the United States.

Booker announced his entrance to the race on Twitter early in the morning on Thursday, February 1st – the first day of Black History Month.

The former mayor of Newark is the first Black man to enter the race as a major candidate for the Presidency (Ken Nwadike announced his candidacy in October).

In what even the conservative paper ‘The Washington Examiner’ is already calling “one of the best announcement videos of all time”, Booker spoke about his upbringing and laid out his vision for America to the beat of the Malcolm X Shabazz High School marching band, unveiling the slogan “We Rise”.

The Senator will begin a string of appearances in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire, starting this weekend. He also announced that his campaign will take no money from PACs or special interest groups.

Booker is the fourth sitting Senator to enter the race, including his colleague on the Judiciary committee, Kamala Harris, the fist Black woman to run as a major candidate in fifteen years, who drew a crowd of 20,000 peopleto her announcement rally in Oakland California on January 27th.

There are still 21 months before the 2020 Presidential Election, and it is widely anticipated that the present field of more than a dozen candidates may double in size.